The present invention relates generally to the field of textiles and woven fabrics, and to methods of fabricating woven textiles.
Textiles and the myriad weave patterns used to create them have existed almost as long as recorded history. The only alternatives to woven fabrics were skins and felts, one created biologically and the other created with highly entangled fibers but without a deliberate pattern to the entanglement.
Woven fabrics have always been created sequentially. This means that individual threads were combined by interleaving and overlapping with other threads in repeated patterns, one thread or one group of threads at a time. Threads might themselves be combinations of smaller threads or individual, natural or man made fibers. A fixed width of a fabric in a loom designed for weaving is increased in length by the width of one thread or one group of threads at a time. This sequential assembly of fabric, necessitated by the often complex interleaving and overlapping of threads in substantially orthogonal groupings, makes the creation of fabric a slow and labor-intensive process.
By contrast, felts and other non-woven fabrics are created in a parallel fashion. This means that all of the fibers or threads used to make up the final fabric are laid simultaneously as a highly entangled thin layer. This process is much faster than the sequential assembly described above, but the resulting fabric does not have the same mechanical characteristics as the woven material. U.S. Pat. No. 3,149,456 issued to Tenney, teaches that a molding of fabric from synthetics is possible in which the approximation of individual, independent threads crossing one over or under another is possible by molding columns between thread intersections substantially perpendicular to the plane of the fabric, said columns being long enough to permit a limited degree of movement between the crossing threads connected by each column. The columns enabled the use of a sinuous-surface mold without “reentrant” elements, or side actions, or inserts, but the resulting fabric merely approximated the truly individual, independent threads of a conventionally woven fabric. A goal of the present invention is to create separate, unconnected threads in a woven pattern, where overlapping thread intersections have no undesired connecting elements therebetween.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,276,608 issued to Bugge teaches that previously formed warp threads, optionally coated with adhesion preventing material, can be overmolded with weft threads that pass over and under the parallel array of warp threads in a woven fashion by: “the use of two opposed surfaces which are provided with a series of parallel grooves and with partial grooves crossing the parallel grooves. Previously formed warp threads are arranged in the parallel grooves and the space between the surfaces is supplied with a mass of artificial silk. The surfaces are then brought together so as to force the material into the partial grooves to form in situ weft threads crossing and interwoven with the warp threads.” The previously formed warp threads form parts of the surfaces of the cavities of the partial grooves within such a mold in which the weft threads are molded in situ. This means that there is contact during molding between the previously formed warp threads and the weft threads being formed in situ. Without adhesion preventing coating previously applied to the warp threads, the weft threads could adhere to the warp threads. Moreover, the weft threads would conform to the exposed surface of the previously formed warp threads. In any practical implementation of the mold Bugge describes the partial grooves will incorporate at least half the circumference of the previously formed warp threads into the surfaces of the cavities forming the weft threads in situ. This forms many joints in the finished fabric that, though they are not adhered to each other, nevertheless add stiffness to the fabric, especially when the fabric so molded is stretched along a dimension diagonal to the warp or weft threads.
The aforesaid Bugge prior art patent requires that previously formed warp threads must pass straight through either a rotary or flat plate mold. The resulting fabric must therefore have warp threads that are straight, with weft threads making sinuous paths over and under the straight and parallel warp threads. This imposes a limit on the types of fabrics that can be molded by such a process, since there are many fabrics in which both the warp and weft form sinuous paths over and under each other, much like the column-connected threads described by Tenney. Moreover, in any practical embodiment of such a process, it is likely that the warp threads will pass through the rotary or plate mold under some non-zero amount of tension. During molding, the weft threads being molded will shrink during hardening or cooling, creating a tension in the weft direction different from the tension of the warp threads. This will cause wrinkling of the fabric when released from the mold, a characteristic that is not always desirable and must in any case be controlled.
Both the aforesaid Tenney and Bugge patents describe fabric molding processes. While the present invention includes molding molten or fluid material, it also includes thread forming methods in which elements can be formed by being printed and/or laminated in novel ways to accomplish a woven fabric of separate threads. Applicant's printed or laminated or other non-molded embodiments were not envisioned by the aforesaid Bugge or Tenney references and are however to be included under the term “molded” as used by applicant in its broader sense as to shape or form as permitted by the unabridged dictionary.